Pokemon Ruby Version - Pokemon of the Day: Far Fetch'd

Pokemon have taken a new evolution with Pokemon:
Ruby/Sapphire Versions. The Pokemon of the Day Chick has helpfully
shifted her attentions to Ruby and Sapphire, so you can rest assured that
she has your trainer's corner covered.

As before, the Pokemon Chick will be taking a personal and detailed
look at a Pokemon. You'll find a list of all the moves you will want, and
a choice list of recommended moves you want to keep for your prize pet.

You'll also find breeding chains, Pokedex entries, stats, descriptions,
locations, resistances, gameplay tips and a suggested move set for those
of you who can't seem to make up their mind about what to saddle their
Pokemon with!

Today's Pokemon is Farfetch'd! And all I can say is...wow. Those
of you who've been reading these things for awhile will recognize the name
MaxGoof/Dabid as that of a respected Pokemon sage on IGN's boards...well,
he feels for Farfetch'd about the same as I do for Cubone (read: he'd probably
take a bullet for the thing). So here I am thinking "Farfetch'd must be
a real hidden treasure to earn the respect of such a hard-nosed trainer!"
and getting ready to Stantler-ize its review...and...wow. WOW. This thing
is really, REALLY terrible. I'm blown away here. I honestly hope Dabid
doesn't read these (I don't believe he does), because his baby's gonna
be put through the wringer today...though I hardly have the heart to lay
into it; I wasn't expecting Farfetch'd to be quite THIS bad so I'm more
inclined to pity it than despise it at the moment...

LOCATION: Though not yet available in RuSa, Farfetch'd isn't
all that hard to find in the previous generations of Pokemon games. Red
and Blue players will have the option of trading a Spearow for a Farfetch'd
in Vermillion City while Yellow players can catch it on Routes 12 and 13.
Gold and Silver see the wily bird moved to Routes 38 & 39 (between
Ecruteak and Olivine cities, the same place you can find Miltank and Tauros),
and in Crystal Farfetch'd has moved yet again, this time to Route 43.

Yes friends, you read those stats correctly...I know, I know; I
didn't believe it myself at first either. I'd like to know exactly how
GameFreak justifies letting a fully evolved Pokemon with stats this all-around
crummy slide through, I really would. Maybe I've just been spoiled by my
recent Dodrio analysis (who I of course feel is THE best Normal/Flying
type out there), but come on, even Togetic has better stats than this!
Oh well...if there is one good thing about Farfetch'd it is his ability
to bridge the Ground and Flying breeding groups. We talked about Spinda's
indispensable role as a link between the Ground and Humanshape breeding
groups, and I'd say Farfetch'd's role is every bit as essential, if not
more so...

...dammit, that "Farfetch'd's" is really bugging me...stupid Nintendo
deciding to be cute by putting an apostrophe in its name *grumble*. From
this point on I'm just gonna say "Farfy's" where appropriate; that's his
generally accepted nickname on the Pokemon Board anyway.

Okay, so first up we have Featherdance in recognition of Farfy's
wretched Defense...there's little point in fingering a single worst stat
for a Pokemon whose stats are so low in general, but there it is for posterity's
sake. Featherdance is essentially just Charm, only with feathers! Though
I usually say such moves are decent for encouraging an opponent to switch
out, in this particular case I'd prefer they stay in...the only way Farfetch'd
is going to make ANY headway is if he manages to trap the last opponent
Pokemon in battle and utterly demolish its Attack (the fact that we're
looking for an opponent with no elemental attacks should go without saying
here). Well, here's hoping the move looks cool when animated in Colosseum,
at the very least.

Knock Off is a new RuSa attack that I don't believe I've gone over
before (or if I did, it was very briefly in passing). In any case, y'all
should be somewhat familiar with the move if you've spent any time leveling
up against the wild Hariyama in Victory Road...a Dark type attack that's
incredibly weak offensively, Knock Off's true purpose is stripping an opponent
of their held item (or knocking it off, if you will). The difference between
Knock off and the more popular Thief is that Knock Off doesn't give the
opponent's held item to Farfetch'd; it merely casts it to the four winds
or whatever. This is cool because Farfetch'd doesn't have to sacrifice
his own held item this way, plus if by some miracle the opponent you violate
(I always imagine my Pokemon shrieking "I've been violated!!" after being
Thiefed...think strip search *snicker*) doesn't kill Farfetch'd outright
directly afterwards you just might be able to salvage him for use against
following opponents who also rely heavily on their items.

Swords Dance...*sigh*. I really didn't want to recommend this since
Farfetch'd has neither the Speed nor the defenses to set it up effectively,
but his options truly are limited. I'd only recommend using it if you manage
to corner a Bug or Grass type who can't do much of anything against Farfetch'd,
and even then I'd try and content myself with one Swords Dance as opposed
to attempting to max out Farfy's Attack. He'll never be a sweeper, but
if you're lucky you just might be able to bring Farfy's Attack up high
enough to kill a single opponent...you know, just so his teammates won't
beat him up when they all head back to the locker room.

This last slot is up for grabs; as long as you give Farfetch'd one
physical attack to take advantage of Swords Dance he should be in decent
shape. Aerial Ace and Return are both STABed and keenly accurate...I'm
not particularly taken with Aerial Ace's low base power but it at least
boasts a few offensive strengths. Return may be boring, but at this point
it's about the most powerful offensive attack Farfetch'd can wield. Normally
I'd be touting Slash here given the opportunity, but since this Farfetch'd
uses Stick he has just as good a chance of landing a Critical Hit with
Return (I don't believe Stick affects the Critical Hit ratio of moves like
Slash that ALREADY have an above average CHR; someone correct me if I'm
wrong). Then there's Steel Wing, which is slightly less accurate yet might
raise Farfy's Defense (something he could certainly use)...Steel Wing would
also add to Farfy's versatility somewhat, though I'd say you're crazy if
you're actually considering bringing this thing in against a Rock or Ice
type.

Speaking of Stick...yeah. I have no idea where you get Stick in
RuSa, so don't ask (I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being a chance
attached item with Farfetch'd transferred in from Fire Red/Leaf Green,
but that's just a guess). I'm still recommending it simply because I won't
get another chance; this is one of those Pokemon-specific held items like
Thick Club, Light Ball, Metal Powder (I feel like a heel for forgetting
to mention Metal Powder in Ditto's analysis, by the way), etc. In Farfy's
case, Stick ups the holder's Critical Hit ratio...pretty much a glorified
Scope Lens that only works on Farfetch'd. You'll notice this Farfetch'd
has no way to heal himself, so despite the fact that his HP is in the gutter
you might want to go with Leftovers if you favor practicality over novelty;
Quick Claw is another consideration since Farfetch'd is painfully slow
for a Flying type. On that note, I tend to prefer Inner Focus to Keen Eye...Farfy's
accuracy shouldn't be much of a concern if you go with the popular Aerial
Ace, and his lackluster Speed does render him fairly vulnerable to flinching
(whereas most of the other Pokemon who can have Inner Focus are fast Flying
and Psychic types who seldom find an opponent quicker than themselves).

Farfetch'd doesn't have that many alternate options in RuSa; there's
the standard filler moves Attract and Toxic, the ever-popular Chesty Resting,
Agility if you feel the need for Speed and Curse if you don't (and there
are no elemental attackers in sight). As for RBY, Slash was infinitely
more useful back then while Reflect and Substitute kept Farfetch'd alive;
he also had some promise as a pseudo-Hazer with Whirlwind. Now that that's
outta the way, what I'd like to do at this point is rail against the unethical
treatment of Farfetch'd when it comes to what he was stripped of in the
transition from GSC to RuSa...two words, folks: Endure and Baton Pass.
With GSC's TM20, the naturally learned Agility and the hereditary Flail,
Farfetch'd actually had a prayer of making something of himself in the
bygone days of metal...he wasn't as good at it as Dodrio, but it at least
gave Farfetch'd the option of DOING something before dying horribly. I
don't care HOW good of a move Safeguard (the new TM20) is; the loss of
that Endure TM truly screwed a lot of the older Pokemon over. Then there's
Baton Pass...you'll notice the move isn't listed above, but you would receive
an extra-special Farfetch'd with Baton Pass if you cleared the first round
of cups in Pokemon Stadium 2 (I *think* it was Round 1 and Earthquaking
Gligar was Round 2, but it's been a long time so I could be wrong...someone
back me up on this). Okay, so Scyther totally blows Farfetch'd outta the
water as far as Swords Dance and Agility Baton Passers go, but it's the
principle of the thing! It didn't matter how much Farfetch'd sucked as
a Baton Passer; the mere fact that he WAS one in the days when you were
otherwise pretty much limited to the likes of Aipom and Mr. Mime just made
him cool! So Farfetch'd is no longer a cool Baton Passer, he's no longer
a useful Agility/Endure/Flailer, he's just...a duck. With a stick.

Before we leave this section I'd just like to say that it is totally
unfair that Farfetch'd can't learn Leaf Blade. How could the designers
pass up something soooooo obvious?! He uses a LEAF as a SWORD, for cryin'
out loud; how much more Leaf Blade-y can you get?? Though to be fair, the
GBA animation for Leaf Blade is more reminiscent of a chainsaw than an
actual blade...now THERE's an idea! Farfetch'd could have stats of 119
across the board for all I care if only they'd given him a chainsaw to
hold as opposed to a stupid leek; I'd definitely train one then! Eh...somehow
I doubt Nintendo will ever trade in Pokemon's safe "E" rating for an "M"
one solely to satisfy my desire for a chainsaw-wielding maniac trapped
in a duck's body. And did I mention the duck has stupid hair? Poor thing
just can't seem to catch a break.

Whoa...that wandered off-track fast. Anywho, there's Farfetch'd
for ya. I can think of about a hundred Pokemon I'd train before this thing,
but I gotta give him props if for no other reason than MaxGoof sees some
grain of worth in him...now I feel kinda bad; if he was in my position
he probably wouldn't have insulted Cubone as much as I've insulted Farfetch'd
today. Feh. If you're looking for an awesome Normal/Flying type for serious
battles I'd strongly recommend you pass this one by; there's nothing Farfetch'd
can do that some other Pokemon can't do about twenty times better. If,
on the other hand, you're in search of a unique Pokemon with loads of personality,
you just might want to give Farfetch'd a try...after all, he and Princess
Peach are thus far the only Pokemon known to man who fight with vegetables.

Best of luck to you in your bid to master this ornery onion-wielding
osprey (okay, so he's nothing like an osprey, but it sounded good), and
remember to check back tomorrow for another heaping helping of Pokemon
of the Day!

Questions? Comments? Want to argue with the Pokemon of the Day Chick?

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